wow..... wow.... you are an inspiration... ive been tosing the idea of building my own turbo lately...

i will deff. be watchin this thread! i only wish my dad would get off his butt and buy a welder! lol and then i can start collecting parts and take the last of my vacation for this year and work on my car! lol

Thanks everyone!
I talked to my tuner and he said to go with .035" gap for my plugs, and that I'd get spark blow out with .055".

Day 10

Hard to believe I've been at this for 10 days now.

Start time: ~6:00pm
End time: ~11:15pm

Today I said goodbye to my PCV system.
I'll be running no true PCV valve, but a modified PCV valve with no valve. (see pics)
I cut the very bottom off the stock PCV valve, which exposed the metal valve and springs which fall right out.
Air now flows freely though the uh, un-valve.
Both the valve cover and crankcase hoses will run to a catch can with a breather filter on it.

I'm still deciding whether or not to "Y" the two hoses into the same port and use the 2nd port for the breather valve, or drill and tap a hole in the top and add a 3rd port for the breather filter.
Opinions welcome.

Intake manifold removal tips:
- First thing, assuming you have an air compressor, blow out all dust and dirt away from the manifold and surrounding areas.
You really don't want junk falling into the head.
- Have an extendable magnet handy. Makes reinstalling the bolts much easier, and for grabbing the bolts when removing so they don't fall to unreachable places.
Also great for when you drop the 10mm socket, the 6" extension, or both.
- All the primary 10mm manifold bolts can be reached with a straight 6" socket extension.
No bendy knuckles needed, as I tried to begin with but just made it harder on myself.
- Back out the 2 10mm bolts on the fuel rail at least 1/4". This provides necessary wiggle room to remove the intake manifold.
- Save removal of the knock sensor bolt until after the manifold is unbolted. Much easier to reach.
- Plug the knock sensor electrical connector back in before bolting up the manifold.
- Don't forget to reinstall the little copper tube for the EGR.. unless you just like practice removing and reinstalling the manifold.
Yes I did that. :wallbash:

PICS

Intake manifold removed.
The blueish thing near the center of the pic is the PCV valve.

Underside of intake manifold.
The round blue gasket on the far left seals around the EGR port.

PCV valve.
It's possible to remove the valve without removing the black cover, but removing that cover makes it much easier.

Well I was hoping to finish up the exhaust today, but I'll have to finish up tomorrow.
My plan was to just work through the night but I'm too tired.
I have most of it done, just the last angle left to do and then fully weld the tack welds.
Since I'm using flux core wire I'll be painting the exhaust, even though most of it is stainless steel.
The "tip" will not be painted, but instead I used the wire wheel on my bench grinder to polish it.

The exhaust is completely from scratch..
The mandrel bends are "seconds" from www.mandrelbendingsolutions.com.
They sell seconds for $5/bend for aluminized or $7/bend for stainless steel.
Don't take this price as gospel though. If they change it they change it.
All of the hangers I'm having to fab too.
It would have been far easier to purchase a cat back, but if you haven't noticed I'm a bit stubborn like that.

I plugged the hole in the EVO section of my air intake.
A cap from a mini can of WD-40 fit absolutely perfect.
Hey, sometimes you have to improvise! :)

I finished up the exhaust today.
It took way, way longer than I anticipated.
Getting everything aligned just right by myself, on the garage floor, and making my own hangers from scratch was pretty tough.

I ran into an alignment problem with the IHI wastegate.
Apparently I had the test-fit turbo all tweaked and didn't even notice it.
So tomorrow I have to figure out a way to get my good one aligned properly.
I needed the compressor outlet to face a different direction than on the Tbird so I turned it.
I'll post tomorrow what I come up with.

I also weighed parts today since I'm basically finished with all fab work.
Measurements are with a bathroom scale, so accuracy is definitely not dead on.Stock:
Exhaust: 31.4 lb
Header: 17.4 lb
Plastic air intake stuff: 7 lbTotal: 55.8 lb

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